The Form Letter Machine
The Form Letter Machine is a free program for Microsoft Windows devices that assists you in writing letters by re-using paragraphs.
If you write letters with similar paragraphs regularly, you may speed up the creation of these letters through automation.
The Form Letter Machine can be a helpful software program for users who want to automate the generation of letters.
The program allows you to save paragraphs of text into topics and groups, so that you may use them whenever the need arises. You may create groups, e.g. introductions, closing, signatures, or legal, and add one or multiple paragraphs to each that you can name as you see fit, and put each under a topic, e.g. feedback, inquiry, or reply.
You could create multiple introductions or openings for instance in groups, depending on who you are addressing. Think of formal and informal openings for instance.
You may create a letter then by simply selecting one item from each group. Groups use radioboxes or checkboxes, and the main difference between the two is that the former allows for the selection of one text bit that you have added to the program, while the latter of multiple ones.
The Form Letter Machine
The example above consists of three groups with two of the groups using radioboxes and one checkboxes. Here is what Mouser has to say about his program:
The Form Letter Machine is a program that will help you to write letters and emails by mixing and matching from pre-written paragraphs.
It's useful for people who regularly need to send out emails which include different components in different circumstances. For example if you field technical support requests, or if you need to reply to various inquiries, etc.
It enables you to assemble text from multiple paragraphs, each one customized for a specific type of inquiry or response. You can build your own configurations using checkboxes and radioboxes and nested groups, and then easily write new letters or respond to inquiries by checking off the components you want to include. A real-time preview allows you to view the message as it is composed. The program also supports user defined variables, which allows you to quickly personalize the template with a name or other data that is specific to the task. The text is then copied to the clipboard and can be used in your e-mail program or word processor.
One interesting option is the use of variables in texts (for names and other parameters that might change). Variables can be easily defined in the interface and filled with values which appear instantly in the text. This allows you to personalize a letter so that it addresses multiple recipients.
Mouser has created a website for the program which is a repository for user generated form letters that can be used in the software program. The Form Letter Machine is available for download on the Donation Coder website. It is compatible with all recent and not so recent versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system starting with Windows 95 and going all the way up to Windows 10.
As far as applications are concerned for the application, you could use it to generate multiple letters to different recipients that you print out locally, or for use in other programs using simply paste and copy.
Closing Words
The Form Letter Machine is a portable program for Windows that improves the generation of form letters. It works well for creating mass personalized letters, or for replying quickly to emails or messages as you can use bits of texts that you would write over and over again otherwise.